


You Weren’t There... But Neither Was I

by orphan_account



Series: Polygrumps High School AU [2]
Category: Game Grumps
Genre: Bullying, Child Abuse, Multi, No Dialogue, Violence, implied happy ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-15
Updated: 2018-08-15
Packaged: 2019-06-27 14:57:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15687720
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: This is based off my ongoing fic “Family is a Choice”, but taking the scenario what if they didn’t have each other.  What if they were outcasts, plain and simple, broken in their own ways with no way to repair the damage they’d taken in the process?





	You Weren’t There... But Neither Was I

Holly wrapped herself in a blanket, curled up in her room, crying. It felt like she was always crying. There was no reason for her to keep going, knowing that there was no out. She was bullied at school, beaten at home... there was no point. 

She covered her mouth, trying to stay quiet. She just wanted someone to tell her that it was worth it. That she deserved to be alive. That she was doing something, anything right. She cried out softly into the dark.

But there was no answer.  
————  
Dan stared up at the ceiling at home, his homework scattered over his bed as tears rolled down his cheeks. He looked at the photo of Jack on his phone, with his bright smile and green hair. He missed him. 

He hated football. Hated the way his skin was constantly covered in bruises because of the way he was hurt in the locker room. Blows to the arms and head and stomach, day after day after day. He wanted to hide, run away.

Tears just fell faster when he heard his parents whispering outside his door. He rolled onto his side, pretending to be asleep with his back to the door, hearing it slowly creak open. He knew they were worried. He hardly ate, hardly spoke unless he was singing in his school choir, and he just hid all the time. He hated... everything.   
———  
Arin angrily threw the glittery shirt away, pacing around in his room. He was letting them win but what choice did he have? There was no positive to being on the cheer squad.

He loved it, yeah, but it wasn’t worth being a laughingstock, being mocked day in and day out.

And he was letting them win because he was too much of a coward to face them. The football team was the worst. Except for that scrawny kid with the curly hair, he always looked too scared to say anything. But the rest... they hurt him.

And he was giving up.  
—————  
Ross kept his head down, idly sketching in the margins of his test, which he’d finished already. He hadn’t signed up for an art class this year. There was no point. He’d just go to college and get a degree in something safe and take an office job and die in 70 years.

He was nothing special. He never would be anything special.

When he got the test back a few days later, he almost burst into tears at his desk. He’d gotten everything right. But the doodle was crossed off and he’d gotten points taken off. Written in red ink; _no drawing on tests -4_  
—————  
Barry quietly sat in his programming class, pushing up his glasses and typing. The classroom was filled with the soft murmur of conversation, people around him talking.

No one noticed him, sitting in the back of the classroom in jeans and a flannel, nothing flashy or noticeable. He couldn’t really remember the last time he’d had a conversation. It was at least two weeks ago, and he was just silent in between.

What was the point of talking? It wasn’t like anyone ever listened.  
—————  
Suzy jolted when someone brushed against her in the hallway, pulling her too big sweatshirt around herself. She pressed her back against the lockers, looking around with a flighty and paranoid look in her eyes. Someone could hurt her. Someone had hurt her and she didn’t know where he was or if he’d find her again. She was so scared, no one to keep her safe. 

No one knew. She’d never said a word, scared he’d use it against her, scared she’d be targeted by someone else. She quickly swapped her stuff out of her locker, holding her books to her chest.

She flinched when someone got close, a boy in a red flannel with a developing beard and big glasses. He looked like he was going to say something, but just closed his mouth and kept walking.

With a shaky breath, she kept her head down and made her way to class.  
—————  
Brian was quietly working on an essay in the library, books spread out on the table in front of him as he wrote in his notebook, occasionally looking over at his work for science. Free periods sucked. He had nowhere else to go and heard someone whispering behind him, catching his name and some particularly cruel words in between.

His cheeks burned and he pulled his shoulders closer to himself as he wrote. It would be nicer if he just had some company. 

But he was destined to be alone, it seemed. All he could do was hope he could keep himself motivated until he was done. And that maybe his college applications would be accepted. With a heavy hearted sigh, he just kept working.  
———  
Seven broken hearts, seven broken minds, seven broken spirits. High school wouldn’t end well for any of them. Holly would find herself running, going far out of state for college where she would find a mild sense of peace, though her paranoia would never quite leave her.

Dan would find himself clinging to music, the only thing that kept him going, though his stomach would never be quite right after all the times he’d been punched. 

Arin would drop out before he graduated, staying close to home for awhile, plagued with insecurities his whole life, eventually finding his passion in art and gaming. 

Ross managed to hold onto his last scraps of passion, pushing it all into a few basic animations that picked up a little bit of speed, a final driving force.

Barry continued to be nearly silent for years, focusing on studying and just being as small as possible, somehow landing the job of editor for a tiny group that would somehow gain traction and give him courage to try speaking up.

Suzy never quite shook her paranoia, but grew to love herself and those around her, building up confidence as a last ditch defense mechanism. 

Brian felt along for many years, just keeping his head down and studying hard, hating how loud and lonely the world around him was. But a single email showed him that maybe it didn’t have to be.  
————  
They found their ways differently, but maybe their ending didn’t have to be as sad as the beginning. Dan found Brian, Barry found Arin, who found Ross and Suzy. And Holly found them all at once, feeling something she’d never felt before that moment.

Loved.


End file.
